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WKBT
''Not to be confused with WKBT-DT, the real life CBS affiliate serving La Crosse, Wisconsin. '' '''WKBT, virtual channel 44 (UHF digital channel 45), is a television station licensed to Toad Harbor, Mushroom Kingdom, operating as an owned-and-operated station of The CW Television Network. The station is owned by the CBS Television Stations subsidiary of CBS Corporation, as part of a duopoly with CBS owned-and-operated station WFVE-TV (channel 5), also licensed to Toad Harbor. The station is available on channel 12 on most cable providers in Toad Harbor. History As an independent station The station first signed on the air on January 2, 1968; it was originally owned by Kaiser Broadcasting (established by steel/aluminum and shipbuilding industrialist Henry J. Kaiser 1882-1967) and which owned other UHF independent stations, including WKBE-TV Wuhu Island and WIVI Detroit. WKBT-TV was the fourth independent station in Toad Harbor area behind WICU-TV (channel 36), WUTV (channel 2), and WNTV (channel 11). Kaiser Broadcasting later merged with Chicago-based Field Communications (Marshall Field, (1834–1906, founder of empire including famous department store chain and later descendents branching into media, including O-Town independent station WFBO, and daily newspaper, the Chicago Sun-Times and defunct tabloid Chicago Daily News) in 1973 as part of a joint venture between the companies. In 1977, Kaiser sold its interest in the stations to Field, making Field the sole owner of WKBT. Field later put its stations up for sale in 1982, and WKBT was sold to United Television in 1983. WKBT maintained a general entertainment program schedule that included morning and afternoon children's blocks, off-network sitcoms (such as The Brady Bunch), feature films, and public affairs programming. At one point, WKBT advertised itself as "Toad Harbor's Movie Station" and aired a movie in prime time six nights a week, with offerings rivaling those of WNTV, which also frequently aired movies. Several local programs produced at WKBT were syndicated nationally including Entertainment Changes Now (distributed by Nintendo; ironically WNTV's founding owner; and produced for the release of their Nintendo Entertainment System). In 1993, the station began carrying programs from the Prime Time Entertainment Network programming service (which was owned jointly by Chris-Craft/United Television and Warner Bros. Entertainment) which it carried until January 1995. As a UPN affiliate In 1994, Chris-Craft/United Television partnered with Paramount Television to launch the United Paramount Network (UPN). As a result of Chris-Craft/United's interest in the network, UPN signed affiliation deals with both the company's independent stations (along with those owned by the Paramount Stations Group) to become charter owned-and-operated stations of the network. WKBT joined UPN when it launched on January 16, 1995. The station continued with its programming format, essentially continuing to program similarly to an independent as UPN would not expand to five nights a week of programming until 1998. The older sitcoms and cartoons (such as The Real Adventures of Jonny Quest and Sailor Moon) were gradually replaced during the late 1990s and early 2000s with more recent sitcoms, talk shows, game shows, court shows and reality shows. In 2000, Viacom bought Chris-Craft's 50% ownership interest in UPN (which Chris-Craft had wholly owned, until Viacom acquired a stake in the network in 1996), stripping WKBT's status as an O&O. On August 12 of that year, Chris-Craft sold its UPN stations to the Fox Television Stations subsidiary of News Corporation for $5.5 billion; the deal that was finalized on July 31, 2001. Fox subsequently traded WKBT to Viacom in exchange for WJLX-TV in Gotham City, New Jersey, thus returning WKBT's status as an O&O. Viacom had purchased CBS a year earlier, resulting in the creation of a duopoly between WKBT and CBS O&O WFVE. Since News Corporation also owned the Fox network at the time (the company split in two in 2013; the company that now owns the network is 21st Century Fox); the trade protected the former Cox-owned WUTV as Toad Harbor's Fox affiliate (Fox would later purchase WUTV and sister station WICU in October 2014). After its purchase by Viacom was finalized, WKBT integrated its operations with WFVE. As a CW affiliate On January 24, 2006, the Warner Bros. unit of Time Warner and CBS Corporation announced that the two companies would sell The WB and UPN and combine most of the networks' respective programming to create a new network called The CW. On the day of the announcement, the network signed a ten-year affiliation deal with most of CBS Corporation's UPN stations, including WKBT. However, it is likely that WKBT would have been chosen even without the affiliation deal. Network representatives were on record as preferring the "strongest" WB and UPN affiliates in terms of viewership, and WKBT had been well ahead of WB affiliate WTWB-TV (channel 20, now WCFE-TV) in the ratings for virtually all of UPN's run. On January 1, 2018, WKBT changed it's official branding to CW Toad Harbor 44. Gallery WKBNident1984.jpg|WKBT's logo from 1978 to 1990, recorded in 1984 1992 WKBT 44.jpg|WKBT's logo from 1990 to 1993, recorded in 1992 WKBT Logo.png|WKBT's logo from September 18, 2006 to January 1, 2018 Digital television Analog-to-digital conversion WKBT shut down its analog signal, over UHF channel 44, on June 12, 2009, as part of the federally mandated transition from analog to digital television. The station's digital signal remained on its pre-transition UHF channel 45, using PSIP to display WKBT's virtual channel as 44 on digital television receivers (WUTV, virtual channel 2, now utilizes UHF channel 44 for its post-transition digital signal). Programming Outside of the CW network schedule, syndicated programming on WKBT includes Divorce Court, Rachael Ray, Family Feud, and Press Your Luck, among others (the latter two are produced by FremantleMedia). The station is considered an alternate CBS affiliate, and as such, WKBT may air CBS network programs as time permits in the event that WFVE is unable to in the event of extended breaking news coverage or special event programming. WKBT also airs rebroadcasts of CBS News programs Face the Nation and CBS Sunday Morning, and local programs produced by WFVE such as Eye on the Harbor and the The Last Truthful Sports Show Left. Newscasts The station attempted to produce a nightly newscast in the 1970s, only to eventually cancel the program due to low ratings. On March 3, 2008, WFVE began producing a nightly half-hour primetime newscast at 10:00 p.m. for WKBT; this program competes against WUTV's longer-established and hour-long newscast, whose viewership regularly dominates WKBT's newscast in the timeslot. The WKBT program has been produced in high definition since its debut. In September 2014, the weeknight newscast was renamed Toad Harbor Nightbeat while the weekend newscast stayed as WFVE 5 News. In January 2012, WFVE-TV began producing an hour-long extension of its weekend morning newscast for WFVE airing on Sundays at 8:30 a.m. Category:Television channels and stations established in 1968 Category:Channel 44 Category:CW affiliated stations Category:Former independent stations Category:Former Independent stations Category:Former UPN affiliates Category:Former UPN Affiliates Category:Toad Harbor Category:Mushroom Kingdom Category:CBS Corporation